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OR, 



SIXTEEN SCENES IN THE DRUNKARD'S 
THEATRE, 





AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION: 

1122 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 
375 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by the 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of 



Pmnsyh'nrn'a. 



JGS^" No books are published by the American Sunday-School Union 
without the sanction of the Committee of Publication, consisting of four- 
teen members, from the following denominations of Christians, viz. : Bap- 
tist, Methodist, Congregational, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and 
Reformed Dutch. Not more than three of the members can be of the same 
denomination, and no book can be published to which any member of the 
Committee shall object. 



PREFACE. 



The design of this little volume is to make cor- 

i 
rect impressions upon the minds of children re- 
specting the great subject of Intemperance. Though 
not intended as the detail of any particular inci- 
dents, it is, nevertheless, a correct picture of scenes 
that actually occur, almost every day, in all our 
towns and villages. All the narrative scenes con- 
tain a correct statement of facts, collected from 
authentic sources and related without intentional 
exaggeration. And, it is presumed, if the deeds 
of Intemperance, but for a single day, were fully 
exposed to public view, facts more appalling than 
these would stare us in the face in every direction. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Scene I. — When and Where the Drama Opens 7 

II.— The Friendly Meeting 11 

III.— The Lonely Wife and Mother 15 

IV. — The Drunkard's Company 19 

V.— The Drunkard at Home 23 

VI. — The Drunkard Returned to his Cups 27 

VII.— The Drunkard in the Highway 31 

VIII.— The House Plague 35 

IX.— The Drunkard's Perils 39 

X. — The Drunkard involves Others in Trouble. 43 

XI.— One of the Fruits of a "Spree" 47 

XII.— The Catastrophe 51 

XIII.— The Drunkard in New Perils 55 

XIV.— The Drunkard in New Troubles 59 

XV. — The Drunkard in Prison 63 

XVI.— The Drunkard's Retreat 67 

4 



Scene I. 
W$m anir Wfym % grams ©p«w. 

"There is surely no harm in just taking 

a social glass with, a friend. Who ever 

heard of a glass of wine or brand j-and- 

water hurting anybody ?" This is often 

said when people are urged to abstain from 

tasting of intoxicating drinks. And, if 

that one social glass were all, it would not 

be a matter of so much consequence. But 

if it is only the first of a long succession of 

glasses. If the taking it is the first step in 

a path that has led hundreds, and thousands, 

and hundreds of thousands, to a drunkard's 

grave, — is there not some reason for bidding 

one to beware how he forms a taste for the 

fiery liquid? Is not the risk great enough 

to make such a warning seasonable ? 
1* 



Scene II. 
%\t JmnMj Dating. 

The one glass has already grown to half 
a dozen. The two companions are now in 
a drinking-saloon, — with a plentiful supply 
of the intoxicating drink. Comfortably 
seated, they indulge themselves in friendly 
chat, drinking glass after glass, till they 
become excited. The hours of the evening 
pass rapidly away. Soon midnight comes, 
— too soon for the full indulgence of their 
appetites. Little do they think of eyes that 
are kept waking at home, or of the injury 
they do to health and business and cha- 
racter. But the next day their red eyes and 
haggard countenances tell us that "they 
tarried long at the wine." Would it not 
have been better to have let the first glass 

alone ? 

11 



SCENE III. 

Ihe funds » mh piker. 

This scene represents the drunkard's 
wife in the loneliness of her home. Her 
husband is a tailor, and has promised to 
have a piece of work done by an early hour 
the next morning for a customer who was 
leaving town. Her husband was coaxed 
away from his work : and the poor wife, to 
save his credit and custom, and to provide 
bread for her four little ones, who are fast 
asleep in the same room, takes the hours 
which she needs for sleep and gives them 
to work. Cruel husband and father! And 
more cruel thev who call him from his 
work and put the cup of intoxication to his 
lips! 

15 



Scene IV. 
Wit granted tatpnj. 

Yes ; this is the drunkard's company ! 
Who would believe that a being formed in 
the image of God and gifted with under- 
standing would reduce himself to a condi- 
tion below the brutes ? And yet here it is 
done. This man had a good trade and was 
doing well ; but in an evil hour he was per- 
suaded to go to the tavern, and then to 
drink, and then to go again and drink 
again ! Then his custom began to fall off. 
He neglected his family and spent his earn- 
ings in the company of sots and idlers. He 
has now been from home several days ; and 
his wife and children, whom he should pro- 
tect and provide for, are left to want and 
misery. 

19 



Scene V. 
tafcarfc at 3am. 



Here we see the poor wretch, who has 
made himself mad with strong drink, abus- 
ing his wife and family. It was in vain 
that she deprived herself of sleep in order 
to finish the job for his customer. It was 
in vain that she toiled and suffered day 
after day to get bread for her children. He 
comes home in a fury of passion and begins 
at once to abuse the wife whom he once 
promised to love and cherish. He does not 
heed her cries for pity, but makes her leave 
her home in the dark and dreary night and 
flee for her life to the neighbours. He has 
taken a thief into his mouth who has stolen 
his brains and turned him into a cruel mon- 
ster. This is the work of strong drink ! 
2 23 



Scene VI. 
%\t jfrmtefo %ttmm^ to \n Caps* 

Who ever had a harder master than he 
who is a slave to strong drink? He sees 
that his business is leaving him. He knows 
that his wife and children are suffering 
from want and disgrace. He feels that such 
habits if continued will destroy his health 
and his life; and he resolves that he will 
never drink a drop of intoxicating liquor 
again. But when some of his old tavern- 
comrades ask him to take a drink, or when 
he goes by the place where he has been ac- 
customed to indulge his beastly appetite, the 
temptation is too strong. We soon see him 
in the midst of his base and wretched com- 
panions, guzzling down the fiery liquid till 
he is again a fool and a madman. 

27 



Scene VII. 
%\t grmtkarfc in i\t p#)an- 

With a reeling brain and staggering 
steps, the miserable slave of strong drink 
turns his feet homewards. A companion in 
folly and sin accompanies him; but they are 
both helpless. They have drunk deep of 
the intoxicating cup, and their limbs are no 
longer under their control. One catches 
by any thing that comes in his way to save 
himself from a fall; but the other is as help- 
less as a log. "What a picture of a brutish 
man ! He has fallen just in the edge of a 
pond of muddy water in which the hogs 
are accustomed to wallow. But they would 
turn away from the liquor which he loves 
and by the use of which he has sunk him- 
self below their level. 

2* 31 



Scene VIII. 
% fans* papt 

There is nothing which will sooner turn 

a happy home into a scene of disorder and 

misery than strong drink. If the husband 

and father becomes a drunkard, poverty and 

suffering are almost sure to come upon the 

wife and children. But if both father and 

mother become slaves to the intoxicating 

cup, as in the scene before us, the house is 

very likely to become the abode of discord 

and cruelty. Those who should love and 

respect each other are filled with anger and 

violence. Ofttimes a dreadful murder is 

the fruit of such a quarrel; and the result 

of a single blow may be a life of suffering 

and disgrace. What a slayer of human life 

and peace is strong drink ! 

35 



Scene IX. 
%\t Inrato's f rate- 

Our reason and senses are given us for 
our protection as well as for our enjoyment 
and improvement. If a man puts out his 
eyes, he has nobody but himself to blame if 
he fall in the ditch or over the precipice or 
dam. In attempting to reach something, this 
woman fell with he* head towards the blaz- 
ing fire. The flame catches her clothes. She 
is too helpless to protect herself. Her hus- 
band is stupidly drunk in bed. The flames 
spread 'from her clothes to other things. 
The house is soon filled with suffocating 
smoke. The fire soon breaks out; the alarm 
is raised ; and, when the ruins are examined, 
nothing is seen of the wretched pair but 
their charred bones ! 

39 



Scene 3>. 
Ihe gnmfcari intooliJts ©tlrers in I rouble. 

When he began his course of folly and 
sin, his children were young ; but now his 
eldest boy goes to school. He is often 
laughed at and twitted because of his fa- 
ther's habits; but he does not fly into a 
passion. At home he is very useful in help- 
ing his mother, and tries to do things which 
his father ought to be there to do. He was 
helping his mother move a heavy tub of 
water, when his foot slipped, and the whole 
weight of the tub came down upon his leg, 
and broke it very badly. He was removed 
to the hospital, where he was obliged to 
have his leg taken off, and his poor mother 
had not only to see him suffer, but was de- 
prived of his help. Oh the woes which 
strong drink brings in its train ! 

43 



Scene XL 
<9nt 0f % Jrrate at a "Sjrw." 

This young man was fond of a social 
glass. He had jovial companions, who 
would have thought him mean to have re- 
fused to drink. So he indulges himself in 
a glass or two, and perhaps thinks he can 
break off when he will. He is out on busi- 
ness, and, though warned of his danger, he 
drinks too freely. He does not mean to 
unfit himself for what he has to do, but he 
is already too far gone to judge. Why does 
the man sell him any more ? Why does he 
not send for some one to take the miserable 
creature home instead of supplying him with 
more of the fiery liquid? Does he not 
know that the few pennies he gets may cost 

the man his life ? 

3 47 



Scene XII. 

With a foolhardiness which is often seen 
in drunkards, the slave of the intoxicating 
glass sets out for home. His brain is 
heated ; his eyes are dim ; and he has only 
just power enough to get into the carriage. 
Some horses will take a drunken master 
home in safety ; but this is a fractious crea- 
ture. In descending a steep hill, at the 
foot of which is a precipice, the horse is 
frightened. With a sudden leap he frees 
himself from the carriage and harness and 
pitches the stupid, helpless driver headlong 
to the road-side. He falls heavily on a 
ledge of rocks, and is picked up ail-but 
dead. Does he now put away strong drink ? 
We shall see. 

51 



Scene XIII. 

When the drunkard is in liquor he has 
no control of himself. He has blinded his 
own eyes, and sees nothing in its true light. 
He does not know places of safety from 
places of danger. When sober, he was so 
much of a sailor that he was intrusted with 
the care of a vessel; but he could not re- 
strain his love of strong drink, and once he 
steered his vessel wrong and ran upon the 
breakers, dashing her in pieces, and expo- 
sing the men who were with him to a dread- 
ful death. But they were able to get ashore, 
and, climbing the rocks, to escape to a place 
of safety. Surely he has learned a lesson 
now that he will not soon forget ! 

3* 55 



Scene XIV. 
Zbj gnmto in gfeto 8 roubles. 

In one of his drunken frolics (as he calls 
them) the miserable toper fell to quarrelling 
with another man, more drunk than him- 
self. In the excitement of passion, and in- 
fluenced with strong drink, he kicked him 
in the breast and then pitched him out upon 
the stone step of the door. He fell upon 
his head and never spoke again ! The dead 
man was taken to his wretched home. And 
what became of the drunkard ? He was 
arrested and brought before the court, and 
tried for his dreadful crime. The judge said 
that his crime was doubled by his being 
drunk; and, though he did not mean to kill 

the man, he must go to prison. 

59 



Scene XV. 

%\t grantofr in frison. 

And here he is on his way to the cold and 
cheerless cell of a prison. He feels bad 
enough now, and wishes he had never tasted 
of the fiery liquid. But he was told what 
would be the end. He saw others who in- 
dulged their beastly appetites were con- 
stantly falling into dangers and disgrace. 
His wife and children often begged him, 
with tears, to abstain, and not to go to the 
places where liquor was sold and where 
drinking-people met. But he would not 
listen to them. He had become the slave of 
the intoxicating cup ; and it has proved a 
very hard and cruel master. He must now 
take his place among thieves and robbers. 

Perhaps he will come to his senses. 

63 



Scene XVI. 

Upon the drunkard poverty comes like an 

armed man. Nothing will save him from 

rags and want but to leave his cups; and, 

alas ! he is too much of a slave to them to 

break off a daily resort to the tavern or 

groggeries where they may be had. He has 

been released from prison; and, so long as 

he has a few pennies or can get a little 

credit, he continues to indulge his beastly 

appetite. But by-ancl-by both money and 

credit fail. He begs his bread from door to 

door, and is often without a place to sleep 

in. By want and exposure he becomes sick 

and lame and helpless, and his next remove 

is to the public poorhouse. He creeps out 

now and then ; and here we see him, a poor 

despised outcast, sitting by the wayside. 

67 



